Randall Clegg, 52, is the new superintendent of the Burnsville-Eagan-Savage School District. He has 23 years of superintendent experience. His last job was at the Clinton Community School District in Iowa. Clegg replaced former superintendent Ben Kanninen, who retired in July from District 191.

Randall Clegg, superintendent of the Burnsville-Eagan-Savage school district, wrote board members a letter announcing his intention to retire just a day before the board made public a critical performance review.

In February, complaints against Clegg were at the center of a $254,814 separation agreement district officials approved for former human resources director Tania Z. Chance.

The payout sparked a firestorm in Burnsville, with residents packing school board meetings calling for Clegg and board members to resign. It also resulted in lawmakers strengthening state laws requiring more disclosure of the reasons behind the buyout of public officials.

Clegg was out of the office and could not be reached for comment Monday, Sept. 17. It’s unclear if the Chance controversy, or Clegg’s poor performance review, played into his decision to resign.

“I haven’t asked Randy specifically,” school board chairman Ron Hill said, referring to the performance review. “It is very possible he took that into consideration. I can’t speak specifically for him.”

Past reviews of Clegg during his four-year tenure have been stellar, but his latest found he failed to meet three of seven goals. Board members declined to say which of the benchmarks, including such qualities as ethics, management and shared vision, Clegg failed to meet.

Clegg’s contract calls for his review to be completed in June, but board members just discussed it publicly Sept. 6.

Clegg’s Sept. 5 resignation letter said his last day will be June 30, 2012, the day his contract expires. In an email sent to school staff Monday and obtained by the Pioneer Press, Clegg wrote that he wanted to give board members enough time to replace him.

“This has been a difficult decision to make but it seems like the right time to move on to the next stage in my life,” the message said.

Hill said teachers and administrators across the district were ready to continue with the “strategic road map” Clegg helped put into place. Clegg led the district as its student demographics changed considerably, with large growth in poor and minority student populations.

“I’ve never met anybody who tuned in so quickly to the changes taking place in our district,” Hill said. “He provided a laser focus on ensuring these kids, now 50 percent of our students, get the education they need.”

Clegg led updates to curriculum, created magnet programs and found ways to fund an all-day kindergarten program.

“Everyone wants to keep moving forward. I’m thankful he’s with us to the end of the school year,” Hill said.

Clegg had an uncertain future in Burnsville after this school year. Ten candidates filed to run for four open seats on the school board and several of the challengers cited the Chance controversy as part of their motivation.

Clegg hired Chance in 2010 and board members gave her a new two-year contract in the summer of 2011. Less than six months later she had made a complaint to the state Human Rights Commission and one about Clegg to the state Board of School Administrators.

State law keeps the details of unresolved complaints secret. In exchange for dropping them and resigning, Chance received $254,814, the equivalent value of the remaining 18 months on her contract.

At first, Burnsville school leaders tried to hide the existence Chance’s complaints, blacking out parts of her separation agreement, calling the information private under the Minnesota Data Practices Act. After a state review board said the information should be public, the district released a complete version of Chance’s separation agreement.

Lawmakers quickly responded to the controversy, with state Rep. Pam Myhra, R-Burnsville, drafting legislation to toughen the disclosure rules surrounding the buyout of public employees using taxpayer dollars. An amended version of Myhra’s bill was unanimously approved by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Mark Dayton.

The changes require government officials to disclose the specific reasons, including unresolved investigations and complaints, that lead to separation agreements with a public employee.

Government transparency advocates called it one of the best advances in the past decade.

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